"Demons of Discipline"

Singularity of the word becomes baffling for the serial offenders of discipline, eaten up by their guilt for not sticking to it but always carrying the ambition to stick to it. So, is it important to be disciplined? Or its monotony jeopardizes the creativity of every act once you have repeated it for a week in the name of discipline.  It’s the elephant in the room and that room could belong to an athlete, a politician or a writer. They all talk of the importance of it, battle lines are drawn between sleeping hours and sleepers, between gyms and potential fitness, even between a Buddha and the enlightenment in the lighter sense of the word. Once you have noticed the elephant and taken it seriously, it is going to ram you against the wall until you ride it and riding it on a daily basis could be the biggest ambition of the entire mankind and womankind. To refuse to eat those golden french fries dipped in red tomato sauce, a match seems to be made in heaven, could be the toughest task an Adam or Eve could face looking at their history with a healthy apple.

In the era of internet and you tube this beast has grown to an extraordinary size because constantly we are more and more aware of the competition and resultant comparison in every wake of life as the smallest achievement can be shared, flaunted and sold at a price tag that depends on the common sense of the reader or the viewer and how seriously they take the information or how well do they know themselves. And then, everything related to discipline could be bifurcated in to doing few things and absolutely not doing the others. You have to get up early so you should not remain awake till late. You have to exercise to be fit and not eat sugar. You have to sit and write this column and not check your phone or you tube to write it well. Every distraction comes so cheap and handy that it requires an iron will to stick to anything and that makes it some sort of achievement. Hence the facebook pages are full of celebrations about beginnings which seldom accomplish anything and those hundred likes which are marks of reciprocation almost all the time, do nothing to help.

“Whatever distracts is evil” says Kafka. So it could all be the work of Devil himself, otherwise why would someone knock at your door with a box full of sweets just when you have quit eating high calorie food items or your close friends whom you can’t refuse anything would invite you for a late night party just when you have resolved to get up early in the morning. The devil must have appointed a special set of demons dedicated to derail the divinity which discipline could invoke. How split up we are in a constant state of torment, bingeing on all sorts of ideas of fitness and perfection which are in air with all the distractions. Only if there was no choice in lots of matters, like a car which runs on petrol has no option to be on diesel. As much as having no choice sounds immoral in today’s day and age, in certain matters it could work miracles. If we had no choice of putting the alarm to snooze, if we had no choice but to practice our craft each day, if we had no choice but to have those holidays once in an year. It all starts from there, because after struggling with routine day and night we reach at some deep understanding about certain activities which then become the most important, leaving no choice to be careless regarding them.

After all there is no choice once one knows that one has to reach office by ten. There is terror about this and not understanding. But thinking and understanding the depth of few things or activities could work as holy water against these Demons which we all need to exorcise.  

"The Age of Reason" - Jean Paul Sartre

The age of reason is 35. How abstract this could be is how precise it is for Mathieu. When your priorities start to become clearer to yourself, there is more chance of one saying no to any proposal rather than agreeing to it because may be it would bring a minor alteration to one’s schedule which more or less signifies the whole of the Age of Reason. To be married or to not to be married so that the same flesh keeps smelling differently, so that those fluids are still sacred which are exchanged in the name of excitement. It is not exactly Jean Paul Sartre is saying but that is how this reader’s interpretation is. Love could be without rhyme or reason so no surprises there, but love could just prolong itself for the seemingly indefinite time till it can’t last anymore because the circumstances are not comfortable enough for the fluids to smell good. Those streets of Paris don’t have much character but those heads have, they are full of Paris and so many other things. We go on, is another interpretation of this reader because we are not left with much choice. Motivation is just like a wave and those gravels of time which it brings forth are coincidental, which are responsible for mood swings because we humans are good at calculating and concluding randomness to fit in to our daily designs of thought and resultant existence. Yes, the thought is our existence without philosophizing it too much. That, I feel Jean Paul Sartre says between the lines.

                                                                       Keep living is not the same thing as keep existing. Now, which is lesser of the two is what Marcelle’s dilemma is and it is not universal, because her concern is not universal when she is trying to matter to herself and the result could be a new life inside her which in some time will try to matter on its own. Ivich is most of us, trying to close eyes but tickled by life, and she is trying to sleep instead of laughing because she is 23 after all and not reaching the age of reason soon enough. She is despondent in her head because she has to be so, juggling hours at various places in Paris at the same time because there is little time and no criteria to judge her judgement.  Off course there is wickedness in Daniel, source of which requires attention from him. He is so much like Marcelle but hides it so much better for nothing in particular because in the end everyone is exposed to Mathieu, including himself, helping his idea of freedom and may be sabotaging it at the same time. Boris is like Ivich just that he loves Mathieu more. His naiveness is dangerous and purposeful like naiveness is most of the time. Rest can do without a mention. It is Jean Paul Sartre work, juicy, stimulating and abstract till it takes a very specific shape and then retains it forever in a reader’s head.

                                                              

"The Tragedy of Comedy"

There is something inherently common in these two classic genres. They seem so far apart that they are yoked as good to evil and light to darkness. Sometimes the tragedies grow to such immense proportions that they lose their meaning and then what comes out of them is laughter because it is the most immediate relief. Surf through the Pakistani comic stage and TV shows on youtube from where most of the comic punches are lifted for hindi comedy shows and you will realize how good they are at making fun of everything and most of their own. I find the roots of that profound sense of comedy in the bigger tragedy of Pakistan.

                                                 Intense hunger and destitution experienced by Sir Charlie Chaplin made him the artist he was, not to mention his talent. Johny Lever, the most visible comic face of Hindi cinema until few years ago had a childhood marred by hardships and sadness. To me it seems that the comedy either starts with tragedy or it ends with tragedy. The two people aforementioned started with tragedy and lived almost happy lives as the state of happiness is always almost and never complete. There are other artists who had happy beginnings, entertained people with their mastery over comics, attained success and popularity before grief took over them drying their source and rendering them to the fall. When people waited for more from them to shake their bellies with heartfelt laughter, tragedy drew the curtain. Micke Dubois, the Swedish comedian, Tony Hancock who was famous for BBC’s Hancock’s Half Hour, Richard Jeni who is named amongst the greatest stand up comedians of all them; they all took their lives. Even in the era before motion pictures came in to existence when Theatre companies used to travel the hinterlands of England, there were many stage comedians who committed suicide. Robin Williams, one of the most gifted comedians of our times took his life when he ruled the hearts of millions of people.  If everyone is entitled to his or her share of tragedy, how much one wishes that grief could strike early so that endings are happy. 

Curious case of "Haider Meer"

When was the last time you experienced silent melancholic frames in a Hindi movie or an assembly of great artists, each performing to the best of their abilities? If you are having a hard time scratching your heads then forget about the rest. By rest I mean a Director attempting one of the most complicated pieces of Shakespeare, each character having its layers demanding our attention and still leaving us guessing about the right and wrong, putting forth the tragedy of not only Haider Meer but also of human frailty, commonness of common man(and woman), our institutions and troubled times. If this is heavy then we can entirely forget about Oedipus, the tragic king of Thebes whose traces can be found in the subtext. We can find them if our craving for junk has not made us forget what a subtext means.  Haider could have been the third crown for Vishal Bhardaj after Maqbool and Omkara but sadly it is not so. It tries to set comics in motion when tragedy is at its peak and that makes it falter. Irony of our times is that standing on the heap of jingle bells and gift packets, Haider is still a classic because it is not a commodity but an idea that most of the movies should be. Tabu, Irfaan, Kay Kay, Rajat (young Tigmanshu from Gangs of Wasseypur), Vidyatrthi are there, still Shahid and Shraddha stand out. Every character has it place, space and time. Kashmiri Pandits are almost left out but that is for other daring makers to explore as it is a story of one Haider Meer. Those who think that the image of Indian army is maligned in the movie can only be pitied upon because this is the tragedy of one Haider Meer.  

"O Master Chetan Bhagat"

O master Chetan Bhagat

o keeper of the herds,

you wizard of many wonders

pray, not English words

for classics made them cry

you ended their plight,

they cheered that night at call center

even mistakes of your life

from northern southern quarters

you brought us two states,

let them say what they may

devil showed some grace

their palms to the heaven

plates were dripping plenty,

possessed by selling spirits

you tossed a revolution twenty

those pictures make you grin

you hit the golden spoon,

now columns and half girlfriends

we swoon swoon swoon…..

Varun Mayaram Sihag

Ha Ha Ha

The deputy Prime Minister of Turkey says that it is not right of women to laugh aloud in public. The Women of Turkey protested by posting their grinning pictures on social media sites. Let’s come out of Turkey. Laughter clubs are all around. Laughing Buddhas in every house with their hands uplifted, grinning at the main doors. There have been hardly any comedy shows which failed to make money, even those stereotypical satires on the sub TV keeps our family members busy from Monday to Friday. When almost everybody is trying to have an American (not Latin) sense of humor, stand up comedians are increasingly giving a good time in dinning bars. Jokes on Arvind Kejriwal, santa-banta and wives do the rounds on wassup with replies in form of hahaha or hehehe. Rajneesh’s discourses are full of anecdotes of Mulla Nasruddin. Hearty laughter is good for blood pressure the doctors say and that is why the green patches of our housing societies are full of sad looking middle age men and women trying very hard to throw their guts out laughing when in fact they have nothing funny early in the morning.

                                                    Indian Mythological Demons (Rakshasas) who have the focus and ability to meditate for long years before Shiva appears to empower them as they desire, go mad laughing once they are empowered and there is no one to appreciate them or their sense of humor. On the other hand the seriousness of lord Rama is celebrated. I wonder why did the earliest writers and directors of television Ramayana thought that the Rakshashas would laugh all the time. It is absurd to see a scholar like Raavan (not RA 1) laughing because some arrow he shot has done some magic when all his sons and brothers lie dead and his army is on the verge of extinction. May be the television Directors picked it from our folklores where Ramayana is religiously played in every village and town mostly by the people from the margins of society. So, even the earliest actors, writers and directors of these dramatized versions thought that there was something sinister about laughter and this the reason every demon would be in fits of laughter right in the middle of a battle when there are dead bodies all around. May be the poor actor just forgot his lines and could not come up with something else or there is something really profound they are trying to convey when our attempts are more demonic in defense of our Gods and prophets. Let’s not take offense at everything, lets have a sense of humor.

"Difficulty of reading a Big Short Story Book"

It would just not end. Unlike fat novels where a singular narrative could assist you in reading two hundred or more pages at one go, these fat short story books would give you a different setting with different characters after every few pages which will require special effort to first absorb it all and then point out the main premise of the story. It becomes like space travel where you are left in a small town or locality to explore it and just when you are beginning the exploration, it ends abruptly and you are dropped in some other part of the country to start it all over. It is like meeting people in buses and trains who would speak a word or two just when their destination is close and they are leaving their seats to get off. How many of the stories could one internalize and enjoy the beauty? My guess is five to six a day would be enough if one is reading ‘Guy De Maupassant’ or ‘O Henry’. ‘Manto’ and ‘Jhumpa Lahiri’ may give some freedom of fast reading but what will be the point of that??